Category: Vermont

  • Saturday, April 21 – The 14th Annual Great Gardens & Landscaping Symposium

    Saturday, April 21 – The 14th Annual Great Gardens & Landscaping Symposium

    The 14th Annual Great Gardens & Landscaping Symposium will take place Saturday, April 21 at The Woodstock Inn & Resort in Woodstock, Vermont. The symposium features:

    Five info-packed lectures led by nationally and regionally renowned professionals in their fields. Dr. Leonard Perry, Horticulture Professor Emeritus from the University of Vermont will speak on Top Flowers and Vegetables for Northern Gardens, and Gardening in a Changing Climate. Katherine Tracey of Avant Gardens will present Succulent Love. Valerie Rollins of Four Star Greenhouse will Discover the Magic Behind Growing Great Herbs, and Kerry Ann Mendez of Perennially Yours will speak on New and Unusual Perennials, Flowering Shrubs, and Annuals.

    A Gardeners Marketplace runs all day with plant vendors, artisans, gardening gifts and products. Terrific handouts, door prizes and garden gifts for everyone!

    Special overnight room rates for symposium attendees at The Woodstock Inn and Resort. This is an opportunity to connect with hundreds of gardeners from around the Northeast and beyond. Register online ($98) at https://pyours.com/symposium/

    Image result for Dr. Leonard Perry book
  • Sunday, July 9 – New England Botanical Club Field Trip to Washington, Vermont

    Join The New England Botanical Club and explore interesting places with great plants, led by local expert botanists. Trips for June, July and August, 2017, are planned, and participants must contact the trip leader 1 week in advance. The second summer trip will take place Sunday, July 9 to Washington, Vermont.

    Field trip to typical, sugar maple forests of the Vermont Piedmont in the town of Washington (just north of Chelsea), Orange County, Vermont. Rich woods, fields, hedgerows and shrublines of the old hill-farm countryside. Terrain is hilly but not steep, easy walking on roads and trails, a lovely landscape. Collecting specimens for the Club herbarium is a feature of this trip. No “very special” habitats are here, but we will see some interesting plants including a positively identified Crataegus holmesiana (pictured), ginseng, ferns, woodland violets, and what-have-you. A very nice vernal pool is also on the property. Level of Difficulty – Easy. Trip Leader: Art Gilman (avgilman@together.net). Art will send meeting time, location and directions to those who register for the trip.

  • Sunday, May 17, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm – Spring Into Fiber! Food!! Faults!!!

    The exclamation points are not ours, but the Pioneer Valley Institute is offering a bus tour on Sunday, May 17, from 9 – 6, which may be of interest to our readers. Take an expedition to the Green Mountain Spinnery, a worker-owned cooperative spinning mill which not only creates its own selection of yarns and patterns but also is used by many New England fiber producers. Lunch will be at the nearby and justifiably famous Curtis’ All American Bar-B-Q in Putney VT. (There are alternatives for vegetarians just across the road at the Putney Food Co-op.) Great yarns and fabulous food. Now, fortified with plenty of yarn and sated with ribs or chicken we will proceed to the Chesterfield New Hampshire Gorge for a hike to explore the faux faults found there. For your next fiber project, be inspired by nature’s rich color palette and geological wonders. As you hike the path witness cascades as they disappear into the midst, while others plunge down through the gorge to the pools below.  See the PVI brochure for enrollment details. $35 per person.  Website: www.gcc.mass.edu/pvi .

  • Saturday, April 19, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Northern Gardening Symposium

    Three dynamic speakers will explore natural gardening practices, landscaping with native plants, and the use of native plants to promote healthy living for generations to come, at the Northern Gardening Symposium to be held Saturday, April 19, from 9 – 3 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont.

    You will hear Miriam Goldberger, founder and co-owner of Wildflower Farm, speak on Taming Wildflowers: From Seed to Vase, A Celebration, Guide, and Users’ Manual. The book Taming Wildflowers: Bringing the Beauty and Splendor of Nature’s Blooms into Your Own Backyard is a seductive celebration of wildflowers featuring lush photos from the author’s one-hundred-acre flower farm. Both practical and inspirational, this lively workshop teaches attendees how to grow hardy perennial wildflowers from seed, identify wildflower seedlings, incorporate wildflowers into gardens, garden to support pollinators, and harvest flowers.

    Dan Jaffe, Propagator and Stock Bed Grower for New England Wild Flower Society, will present Design-less Gardening: A Naturalistic Approach. Disregard traditional design rules and adopt a new approach to garden design. Look to nature for your inspiration. What clues can you take from your landscape to help you provide the right plant for the right place? Learn to evaluate sunlight, moisture, soil, and other factors to create a successful garden that does not require many inputs in the way of watering, fertilizing, or extra coddling on your part. Learn to create a low-maintenance garden that actively supports the environment and provides beauty for both people and pollinators.

    Finally, Uli Lorimer, Curator of the Native Flora Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, explains how the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Expands its Native Plant Collection. Uli Lorimer explains how Brooklyn Botanic Garden has expanded its century-old native plant collection to serve important conservation and educational goals. The expansion sets a new benchmark for native plant displays. As the tree canopy has matured over the last one hundred years, sun-loving communities such as grasslands, serpentine and pine barren plants have suffered. The expansion reintroduces these plant communities with strict parameters. 150 new species have been added to the collection with nearly 30 species of conservation concern.

    The event fee is $47 for New England Wild Flower Society members, $53 for nonmembers. Cosponsors: The Fells, Hardy Plant Club, Friends of the Hort Farm, Vermont Master Gardeners. To register, call 508-877-7630 x 3303 or email lreed@newenglandwild.org.

    http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/a6/bb/a4a6bb109c1479aa32027c7ce8f391e1.jpg

  • Friday, April 4, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, and Saturday, April 5, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium

    The 11th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium, April 4 & 5, 2014 at The Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont , will be sponsored by: The American Horticultural Society, Corona Tools, Equinox Valley Nursery, Espoma, Gardener’s Supply Company, Liquid Fence, Neptune’s Harvest and Proven Winners.

    This premier symposium takes place April 4 & 5, 2014 and will be held at the world-class Equinox Resort (www.equinoxresort.com) in Manchester, VT. The symposium features six dynamic lectures, a Gardener’s Marketplace, great food, door prizes, and gifts. Over 200 gardeners from around the Northeast annually attend this popular event. NEW for 2014 is a special Garden Design Workshop on Friday from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. This workshop is in addition to the symposium. Featured speakers, horticultural experts and notable authors are: David L. Culp: owner of award-winning gardens that have been featured on HGTV and in Martha Stewart Living, VP of Sunny Border Nurseries, instructor at Longwood Gardens (PA), former contributing editor to Horticulture magazine, and author of the top selling book The Layered Garden; Thomas Christopher: a highly respected expert on sustainable gardening practices with articles in The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living; owner of a sustainable lawn consulting business, Greener Grasses/Sustainable Lawns, graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s school of professional horticulture and editor of a best seller – The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable Gardening, which contains his own chapter on water-wise gardening; Deborah Trickett: a highly applauded container designer who works with clients throughout New England, owner of The Captured Garden, instructor at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, Garden Gate and New England Home magazines as well as on the TV show New England Dream Home; Adam R. Wheeler: a plant fanatic who is the propagation and new plant development manager for Broken Arrow Nursery – a destination garden center in CT, and adjunct instructor on plant propagation and woody plant identification at Naugatuck Valley Community College; and Kerry Ann Mendez: owner of Perennially Yours, garden designer and consultant, guest on HGTV, former TV garden series host, her gardens have been featured in Garden Gate, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and Better Homes and Gardens SIP, and author of The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Top Ten Lists and Top Ten Lists for Beautiful Shade Gardens.

    How-to, informative lectures include: 50 Perennials I Could Not Live Without; The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year Round Beauty; A Back Yard Revolution – alternative grasses and compatible perennials that provide all the benefits of a conventional lawn; Celebrity Pots, an entertaining presentation on creating flashy containers that portray celebrities like Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and Grace Kelly; Fun with Color: Variegated Foliage in the Garden; and Flashy New or Underused Perennials for 2014. Overnight packages and day only rates are available. Symposium Day Only rates: $98 per person by March 1, $108 after March 1; special rates for groups and Master Gardeners. Overnight packages including symposium programming, accommodations, meals and all taxes & gratuities start at $300.29 for a single or $430.09 for a double ($215.05 per person). For more information and registration details, visit www.pyours.com/symposium.

    http://gardenrant.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AAADEC20122-550x395.jpg

  • Thursday, August 1 – Sunday, August 11- Phlox Festival

    Perennial Pleasures Nursery and Tea Garden in East Hardwick, Vermont, is holding its annual Phlox Festival now through August 11. This is the time when the majority of their 137 phlox are blooming, and so it’s a wonderful opportunity to see dozens of cultivars in bloom, and to see firsthand the differences in color, shape, height and fragrance, which are so difficult to describe in writing. It’s a pretty nice show of color, and they think you’ll be happy to discover how much action there can be in a late summer garden, especially when phlox are combined with other late-bloomers such as heleniums, asters, burnets and coneflowers. More than 60 varieties should be blooming in the gardens. Daily garden tours at 11 am. Door prizes. Tea room. For more information call 802-472-5104, or visit www.perennialpleasures.net.

    http://perennialpleasures.net/skin/frontend/perennial/perennial/images/Perennial-Pleasures-Nursery-All-About-Phlox2.jpg

  • Saturday, July 27, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – Pteridophytes in Vermont

    The New England Wild Flower Society and the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont co-sponsor a program on Saturday, July 27, from 10 – 2, on Pteridophytes in Vermont.  The Montshire Museum, which abuts the Connecticut River, has extensive grounds with a limey geology that enhances plant biodiversity.  You will visit the extensive variety of ferns, club-mosses, and horsetails, and will hear how to identify each of them.  Class will begin with indoor instruction using slides of drawings and photographs.  Wear long pants and bring bug spray, a hand lens, and lunch.  Instructors are Don Lubin and Ray Abair, identified as “fern enthusiasts.”  $46 for NEWFS members, $56 for non members.  Visit www.newfs.org for complete information.

    http://www.theplantlist.org/img/photo/p-01.jpg

  • Wednesday, July 10, 11:30 am – 2:00 pm – Great American Gardens: Historic, Personal, & Visionary from the 19th to the 21st Century

    As director of preservation for the Garden Conservancy, Bill Noble is fortunate to work with garden owners and community activists who are working to save great American gardens. He will draw examples from the estate gardens of the early twentieth century, such as Shelburne Farms, as well as more recent gardens that give voice to regional and cultural expressions of a time and place, such as Ruth Bancroft’s Garden in Walnut Creek, CA; George Schoellkopf’s Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT; Pearl Fryar’s Topiary Garden in Bishopville, SC and the Gardens of Alcatraz. Bill will tell the stories of the individual creators of these extraordinary gardens. He will also show how some of the garden ideas (and plants) he has picked up through his work with gardens across the country have shown up in his own Vermont garden. This July 10 program will take place at The Inn at Shelburne Farms, in the Marble Dining Room, and the $75 fee includes lunch, program, and a $50 donation to the Formal Gardens Restoration Project at Shelburne Farms. To register, and for complete information, visit www.shelburnefarms.org.

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4CeU9Ct73YI/SK6s34ss0UI/AAAAAAAABas/tGIF70GkA_Y/s400/08_18+perennial+gardens+1.JPG

  • Saturday, June 8, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm – Migratory Dragonfly Short Course

    Dragonfly migration occurs on every continent except Antarctica. In North America, huge numbers of dragonflies can be seen flying south in fall along both coasts and through the Midwest, but these migrations are still poorly understood. The Migratory Dragonfly Partnership (MDP), Xerces Society, and U.S. Forest Service International Programs are pleased to announce an upcoming Migratory Dragonfly Short Course in White River Junction, Vermont,  at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies on Saturday, June 8, from 10 – 4:30. This FREE full day training will provide an overview of dragonfly life history, ecology, conservation, and migratory behavior, and train participants to identify key migratory species and contribute data to ongoing MDP citizen science research projects. Morning refreshments will be provided, but lunch is not included.  For more information contact Michele Blackburn at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation at dragonfly@xerces.com. Register on line at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?utm_medium=email&oeidk=a07e7d4pqro10030708&llr=tnjebhdab&utm_campaign=MDSC+VT+2013&utm_source=VT+June+8%2C+2013+-+MDSC+event+Announce+1.

    http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/themes/xerces/images/headers/11993.jpg

  • Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 14 – The 10th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium

    The 10th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium will take place April 12 – 14 at the world-class Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont.  Day only rates are available, as well as overnight symposium packages.  On Friday, April 12, at 7 pm, Presenter Kerry Ann Mendez, garden designer, author and consultant, will welcome guests and speak on The Art of Shade Gardening: Seeing Your Way Out of the Dark.  On Saturday, from 9 – 4, the Gardener’s Marketplace will be open, and past Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker Rich Pomerantz will speak on Design Strategies for Great Gardens.  Jessica Walliser, horticulturist, author, teacher and radio show host, will speak on The Benefits of Beneficials  and Heather Poire of Bailey Nurseries will give a session on Sensational Flowering Shrubs for the Landscape.  After lunch, Ruth Rogers Clausen, former editor of Country Living Gardener, will speak on Successful Gardening in Deer Country.  Saturday winds up with another talk by Kerry Ann Mendez on The Dazzling New Perennial Line-Up for 2013. 

    Sunday will start with an Ask the Experts Panel at 9 am, followed by Jessica Walliser on Forgotten Garden Combinations and the Fabulous Beekman Boys, owners of the Beekman 1802 organic product line, speaking on The Heirloom Life.  Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell have a passion for organic gardening and ‘the simpler life’. They will talk about how the notion of history and permanence influences every aspect of Beekman 1802 from what they do in the garden to the products they produce. Dr. Brent is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and was Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omni Media. He writes for The Huffington Post, and is now CEO of Beekman 1802. Josh is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Bucolic Plague”, “I Am Not Myself These Days”, and “Candy Everybody Wants”. Kilmer-Purcell is a monthly columnist for OUT magazine and a contributor to NPR.

    For complete registration information visit www.pyours.com/symposium.  To book online, go to www.equinoxresort.com.

    http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/the-bucolic-plague.jpg